After ensuring that the Busse Bus was ready to roll for many miles, we headed off to Dayton, OH to meet Sarah Holevinski. Our son Keenan and Sarah started dating earlier this year. Due to our travel schedule we haven’t had the opportunity to meet her yet. Sarah is in her fourth year of medical school and this summer she is spending three one-month assignments at different places throughout the United States. She happened to be in Dayton at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (WPAFB) while we were close by so we agreed to meet up. I’m sure it was a bit scary for her to meet her boyfriends’ parents without him by her side. She had Saturday off so we agreed to go hiking and then planned on dinner. On the drive in she texted us and let us know that she was available for dinner on Friday night so we invited her over for a coach (home) cooked meal. We got set up at the Enon Beach Recreation Park:
Not the most luxurious place, but close to the WPAFB. I mean look at their sign:
We had enough time to get the Busse Bus cleaned up for our visitor. Katrina tried out a new recipe for lettuce wrapped turkey with rice. Check out the meal:
Excellent! Katrina did a great job!
I gave Sarah a quick tour of the Busse Bus and she was impressed. She got to meet Bear who after some time settled down and behaved. He always gets so excited when people come by because he believes that they come to see him. Here’s Sarah with our welcoming sign:
Sarah stayed with us for over three hours and the time flew by. She is very easy to talk to and her ambitions in life will make your head spin. Her ultimate goal is to become the physician for astronauts! Before she left we all got a picture together:
After she left Katrina and I discussed what a lovely woman she is and that we are very happy that Keenan found her (or more precisely she ”swiped” him on Bumble). We hope nothing but the very best for them.
The following day we met Sarah at the National Museum of the United States Air Force.
We found out that the USAF is celebrating their 75 anniversary:
You may be asking why this museum is located at the WPAFB. I didn’t know either so I looked it up. Apparently the Wright Brothers started building and selling their airplanes here after they tested their concepts in Kitty Hawk, NC. Patterson had the airfield so together it makes a whole lot of sense. The museum is broken down by aviation eras: 1) Early years – bi-planes and World War I,
2) World War II – fighters and bombers including the Memphis Belle
and the Rockscar
which dropped the bomb on Nagasaki that ended the war in the Pacific, 3) Korean War, 4) Southeast Asia, 5) Cold War – stealth technologies and missiles, 6) Space – rockets, and 7) Presidential – including the plane that Johnson took the oath of office on after Kennedy was assassinated. A huge museum where we only were able to scratch the surface on the information. The grounds outside had other planes and monuments:
If you are interested in military planes, this museum is a must see!
We decided to change clothes and let Bear out prior to meeting up again for a drink and dinner. We went to the Carillon Brewing Company which brews beer in the same fashion that they did in the 1850’s.
What an interesting place! I wanted to learn more about their processes but we needed to get going to in time for our dinner reservations. We did take a quick picture before leaving:
We learned on the way out that this brewery is part of the Carillon Historical Park that includes buildings and exhibits concerning the history of technologies and Dayton from 1796 to the present. It was the brainchild of Colonel Edward Deeds and a bell tower was erected in his honor:
Beautiful! The park is part of Dayton University.
We drove over to Wheat Penny to have dinner.
Wheat Penny has a scratch kitchen and offered wonderful food! We had a delicious appetizer of mixed meat meatballs over cheesy polenta. I had the pork chop special while Katrina and Sarah split a burger and pasta dish. Very yummy!
It was sad saying goodbye to Sarah as we thoroughly enjoyed getting to know her! We know that we will see her again at a wedding in September. So nice to meet her!
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